Duality of Creativity in Music

There is such a deeply moving connection between people and music. It can change how we feel about ourselves, about others, about the world. It can shape how we perceive the very nature of existance and our place in it. Music as an expression of self is a gift and a burden. There is music I’ve written that I needed to get out of me because it being in me was destructive. I needed to purge it from my thoughts, my emotions, my soul. Some music I’ve written like that I wrote to never be heard by someone else. I understand that what I do is give a piece of myself in what I write, it is my mind, my thoughts, my emotions laid bare. I’ve always known that music can save someones life. It did mine on more then one occasion. It never really occured to me until recently that it can also do the opposite. It can keep us trapped and indulging the same idea or thought over and over and over.

The difficulty in writing something that you need to get out of you is that it can do both. It can connect with one person, who hears that same struggle or emotion and they can feel like someone understands, and it can help. But it can also connect with another person who hears it, and it becomes a constant harrowing reminder of where they might be and it can add to the oppressive feeling that sometimes those sorts of songs have. Its a duality that exists in all things in life, especially in creativity.

Creativity is subtraction. Fill your head with a thousand pictures, your mind filters it down to a smaller number. Put those pictures together and that is your creativity. So in creating something, you are destroying something else. Possibilities. I play this chord, the next chord I play could be anything, but I destroy the possibilities of the rest when I choose to play one. Duality is in our nature and is more natural then breathing and the more I look the more I see it in everything. Sometimes we want the opposite of what we’ve wanted and worked for for years purely because its the opposite. Music can be both the cause and effect of creativity and destruction. It can cause both and come from both. Ultimately, it is up to the person listening one way or another but I can’t help but wonder whether some songs are best left unsung. Some notes left unplayed.